Surrealism is without question one of the most influential and mutating intellectual and aesthetic practices emerging from the twentieth century. But “when” was Surrealism and “where” was Surrealism?

We wish to probe historical, aesthetic, formal and cultural discourses, – French and Scandinavian, or of other origin for that matter – which may shed light on the productive intersection of Surrealism and Scandinavia. We hope to complicate the traditional historical narrative of “Scandinavian Surrealism” and to re-open and expand the question of Surrealism’s broader relevance to art and culture in and of Scandinavia.


Program

8:30. Registration and coffee

9:00. Introduction

9:15. Keynote address: Karen Kurczynski, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

10:15. Coffee Break

10:45. Panel I: Symbolism in and of Surrealism
Panel Chair: Jon-Ove Steihaug, Munch Museum

Thor Mednick, U. Toledo, “I Grow Fatigued: Jens Lund and the Emergence of Nordic Surrealisms”

Clarence B. Sheffield, Rochester Institute of Technology, “Haakon Bugge Mahrt’s Modernisme and the Complex Cultural Context of Scandinavian Surrealism ”

Marja Lahelma and Hanna-Reeta Schreck, U. Helsinki & U. Turku: “Ellen Thesleff’s Art in a Surrealist Context”

Discussion

12:00. Lunch Break

1:15. Panel 2: Women in and of Surrealism
Panel Chair: Pat Berman, Wellesley College

Kerry Greaves, U. Copenhagen, “Women, Surrealism, and Denmark”

Martin Sundberg, Norrköping Art Museum, “In and out of Surrealism: Greta Knutson-Tzara and the Swedish Art Scene”

Ulla Angkjær Jørgensen, NTNU, “Modish and Erotic Fabulations. Rita Kernn-Larsen’s Surrealism”

Discussion

2:30. Panel 3: Narrative in and of Surrealism
Panel Chair: Øystein Ustvedt, National Museum

Lars Toft-Eriksen, Munch Museum and UiO, “Rolf Stenersen and the Surrealism of Edvard Munch”

Emil Leth Meilvang, UiO, “Psycho-biology and life aesthetics in Danish, inter war Surrealism”

Kristoffer Noheden, Stockholm University, “Surrealism in Stockholm: 1949, 1986”

Discussion

3:45. Coffee break

4:00 Response by Allison Morehead, Queen's University, and group discussion

The conference is organized by the ”Munch, Modernism, and Modernity” research group (University of Oslo, The National Museum, and The Munch Museum).